Background

The 2009 edition of the Kuhmo-Nectar Summer School and Conference on Transport and Urban Economics will be the fourth in a sequence that started in Finland in 2006, followed by a second edition in Urbino in 2007, and a third in Amsterdam in 2008.

The summer school aims to offer a high-quality programme, primarily targeted at PhD students and practitioners who are looking for a condensed programme that introduces them to recent advances in academic research in Transport and Urban Economics. The summer school consists of three days of lecturing and tutorials with an excellent faculty comprising some of the world's most prominent economists working in transport and related areas.

The first day has a more general orientation, focusing on advances in demand and supply modelling, dynamic equilibrium modelling in (urban) transport and discrete choice modelling. The second day focuses on road pricing and congestion while the third day addresses some wider topics (see the Summer School Programme). The composition of the teaching staff for 2009 is almost finalized. The majority of the staff of 2006, 2007 and 2008 will contribute again, while some new lecturers have been rotated into the faculty. The faculty now includes, in alphabetical order: Alex Anas, Richard Arnott, André de Palma, Mogens Fosgerau, Amihai Glazer, Robin Lindsey, Nathalie Picard, Stef Proost, Kenneth Small, Erik Verhoef and Anming Zhang.

As in previous years, the Summer School will be integrated with a two day conference that follows immediately after the Summer School. The main themes for the conference match those selected for the summer school. Delegates are of course free to follow either the summer school, or the conference, or both.